TERRE HAUTE —
This is the weekend of the U.S. Women’s Open, and this year it’s being played at The Broadmoor, East Course, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. That statement alone gives a taste of how this event is going to be different than most golf tournaments. Most golf tournaments are not played at 6,400 feet above sea level, but this one will be, and the players will have to adjust for it.
Nestled in a fantastic site amongst the Rocky Mountains, The Broadmoor was originally a Donald Ross design, built in 1918. Ross declared The Broadmoor to be “his best work”. In 1952 Robert Trent Jones Sr. built additional holes, and the course is now a mix of those two renowned architects. Holes 1-6 are Donald Ross’, 7-15 are Robert Trent Jones, Sr. designed, and then holes 16-18 are Donald Ross designs. At 7,047 yards, this will be the longest course played in U.S. Women’s Open history. It won’t play like it though, the course will play shorter than it looks, and the pros and their caddies will have to make adjustments due to the altitude.
According to an article in “Livestrong.com”, for an altitude of 5,000, the ball will travel approximately 10% farther than it does at sea level. So if you normally hit a 7-iron 150 yards, at The Broadmoor it will travel 165 yards. The longer the ball is in the air, the more likely it is to be affected by the altitude. Drivers will travel farther, while shots hit low with lots of spin will be less affected. The reason the ball travels farther is because the air pressure and air density is lower at higher elevations, so there is less friction slowing the ball down. There are always other factors affecting the ball too, like humidity and wind, and then the pros will also have to account for roll once the ball lands. With lots of rain this week expected in Colorado, they may not be getting much roll. All of the extra distance from altitude might be negated by soggy conditions anyway.
The field for this years’ Open has quite a mix, and quite a range of ages. The oldest player, Betsy King, is 55. The youngest is 13-year-old Honolulu native Mariel Galdiano. She made it in through winning a sectional qualifying tournament in May while she was still 12 years old and finishing seventh grade. She’s not the youngest golfer in the history of the Women’s Open though, both Morgan Pressel and Alexis Thompson played in it when they were 12.
Betsy King, winner of 34 LPGA events including 6 majors, has been a member of the LPGA Hall of Fame since 1995. The putter she plays with is 14 years older than Galdiano. King has been retired since 2005, but she wanted to play in a Legends event and thought that the U.S. Open qualifier would be a nice tune-up for that. Lo and behold she got in. She says she’s just hoping to make the cut, and a nice way to say good-bye, but she added, “Well if I win, I can always change my mind. That would be a real miracle, believe me.”
The player to watch this week though, is Yani Tseng. At age 22 she has already won four major tournaments, most recently the Wegmans LPGA Championship at Locust Hill GC in Pittsford, N.Y. where she won by 10 strokes over runner-up Morgan Pressel. A victory this weekend would give her a career grand slam. She is from Taiwan, and is working on improving her English, which will help her a lot with interviews and gallery popularity. but just recently bought Annika Sorenstam’s old house in Orlando. Annika is her idol, and Tseng hopes to be compared to her someday, not just for her victories in golf, but as a person. Of Annika she said, “She’s such nice people. It’s not just inside ropes, it’s outside ropes. I just wish I could be like her in almost every way.”
The LPGA could do with a new young star that becomes a statesman for the game. I hope that she, and the other LPGA players like Paula Creamer, Cristie Kerr, Suzann Petterson and will make this a fun and exciting tournament, and continue to increase the interest in the LPGA.
n Quote of the day— “That was the nice thing about retirement — the golf nightmares stopped.” Betsy King, who often dreams of not being able to find the golf course, or not being able to swing due to a tree being in her way.
n Upcoming events — The Terre Haute Women’s Golf Association Women’s City Open will be held at Hulman Links July 22-25. Tee times will begin at 8 a.m. each day, with registration beginning at 7 a.m. on Friday. A qualifying round will be played on Friday and match play Saturday-Monday.
Registration forms are available at Rea Park and Hulman Links, and are due by July 19. Cost is $40. For more information call Josie Swalls at (812) 877-1495.
On & Off the Course
ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Women’s Open at the Broadmoor
- On & Off the Course
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Death Notice: Feb. 7, 2013
• Gary R. Wright
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Donna Lynn Strahla Bown
Donna Lynn Strahla Bown passed away early Friday morning, Jan. 25, 2013, with her children by her side.
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‘The Match’ pitting amateurs vs. pros recalled 62 years later
Quote of the Day: “I play golf with friends sometimes, but there are never friendly games.” — Ben Hogan.
Bubba Watson has had a busy fall. Not only did he play all the way to the final round of the FedEx Championships, and in the Ryder Cup, he also played in an event commemorating a very famous match played at Cypress Point in 1956, pitting two of the greatest golf pros at the time against two of the best amateurs.
Come to think of it, all four were some of the best golfers of all time. This year’s event was celebrating The First Tee’s exceeding $100 million in pledges to reach 10 million new young people. It wasn’t televised and kept very quiet; only 225 people were in the gallery.
One of the people in the gallery was Mark Frost, the author of a book titled “The Match,” which is about that match played 62 years ago that was re-enacted in modern terms last week. The pros in 1956 were Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson and the amateurs were Ken Venturi and Harvie Ward. It was supposed to have been a private affair, built around a wager by two millionaires, George Coleman and Eddie Lowery. -
ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Golf from the wrong side of the brain
Imagine this scenario: a woman, small in stature (possibly freckled), walks into a hospital emergency room and says, “I have an emergency, I need a doctor quickly!” The admitting nurse, ever trying to be helpful, asks what the emergency is.
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Farmers looking at widely varying yields
Combines will roll through fields this weekend, bringing in the harvest from a summer with nearly no rain.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Golf debut in London would have been nice
As the Olympics get underway in London this weekend, I was thinking it’s too bad that the Olympic committee decided too late to add golf as one of the sports for this event; instead it will be added to the 2016 Olympics in Rio De Janeiro.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Getting to Hoosier country’s best golfing venue part of the fun
If you are looking for Indiana’s premier golfing destination, then you should look no further than French Lick.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Indiana's Pete Dye courses worth the drive
You’ve probably heard of the Robert Trent Jones Golf trail throughout Alabama, but you might not be aware that Indiana has its own “Pete Dye Golf Trail” comprised of seven courses.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Fathers typically a big influence on golfing sons
Some events fall naturally into place around holidays. The Fourth of July always falls somewhere during Wimbledon, giving all of the Yanks in attendance something to be boisterous about, to the chagrin of their hosts; The Masters often, but not always, ends on Easter Sunday, which is fitting since golfers find it such a reverent occasion.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Memorial just one of many visions of Jack Nicklaus
When Jack Nicklaus was a young man, the golfer he most admired was Bob Jones.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: With some tricky rules, golf is not a walk in the park
Golf is not a casual sport, even though it has a term called “casual water.”
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On and off the course: Sycamores seeded sixth heading into MVC golf tourney
It wasn’t too long ago that Indiana State University didn’t even have a women’s golf team.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: A hard ticket to come by
This is the weekend of the Masters Tournament, the first of the four major tournaments.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Some things on golf course are worse than steep putts
It’s not often that anything gets more scary on a golf course than a steep downhill putt, but on some courses around the world, things a little more on the supernatural side might give you a bigger fright!
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: The shot heard round the world
I don’t know if the Golf Channel will show a “Best Shots of 2011” highlight reel, much like ESPN does for baseball or football.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: The Red, White and Blue visits the Isle of Green
In 2006, the Ryder Cup was held in Ireland at The K Club in County Kildare.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Fall may be coming but golf season is far from over
Once the major tournaments are over with, what’s there to look forward to in the world of golf?
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Golf… simplified!
Golf is not a simple game. A golf course is made up of 18 holes, all different. There are par-3s, par-4s and par-5s; they all vary in length and elevation, and each has its own challenges. There can be water hazards, trees, sand bunkers, tall grass, hills, valleys — and then, if that’s not enough, there’s probably wind too.
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On and Off the Course: Northern Ireland builds on golf history
Northern Ireland is only about 5,452 square miles in area and has a population about the same as West Virginia, which is about 1,880,344.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Women’s Open at the Broadmoor
This is the weekend of the U.S. Women’s Open, and this year it’s being played at The Broadmoor, East Course, in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: The Fort Golf Course: A Walk in the Park…
Indiana has some pretty spectacular state parks, but one of them gives you the ability to “spoil a good walk” by chasing a little white ball.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Father’s Day is a good day for golfers
Most people consider the time around Christmas to be the gift-buying season.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Playing with lead a difficult task
As exciting as last week’s Masters was, with six players being tied for the lead at one point on Sunday, it was very difficult watching Rory McIlroy fall apart to shoot an 80.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Masters a rite of spring
This is Masters weekend, the grand kickoff to the golf season for a lot of golfers. Sure, there have been tournaments on TV, because the professionals have been playing in Hawaii, California, Texas, Dubai, and other areas not so affected by winter as we are here in the Midwest, but to me, watching The Masters is a rite of spring.
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ON THE OFF THE COURSE: Some history on the Ryder Cup
I fell asleep in way too many history classes to ever qualify as a history buff. However, since I have grown up a bit (not much), I enjoy learning about all kinds of history. I often have questions about how something began, or how something came to be.
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On and Off the Course: Purdue's Kampen Course a gem in Indiana's rough
About a month ago, Indiana was still heavily mired in heat and humidity, making outdoor activities such as golf less appealing than usual. At that time it felt like the repressive heat would never go away, it would never rain again, and all of the grass was just going to continue to wither and die. And the month prior to that we kept getting rained out of golf events!
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On and Off the Course: Successful golfers know ... focus is the key
I have a good friend who coached his daughter’s basketball team for a number of years, and told me that his theme with the girls was always “focus”, until it was ingrained in their brains. Now when they play high school ball, if they hear “focus” yelled from the stands, they know the source.
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On and Off the Course: Technology adds even more fun to the course
You’ve hit a drive into some brush in an area marked as a hazard, but you can’t find the ball to prove it is there. And no one actually witnessed it go in the hazard. You just think that’s where it probably is. What is the rule for this situation?
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On and Off the Course: Anthony Gonzalez First Tee Classic a worthwhile charity event
On Monday, I worked as a volunteer for the Anthony Gonzalez First Tee Classic, Golf Tournament and Auction at Eagle Creek Golf Course in Indianapolis. It was an absolutely beautiful day, with clear blue skies, just a few wispy clouds here and there and a high temperature of about 76 degrees.
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On and Off the Course: Trends show golf in decline
You don’t have to watch the news or read the paper to understand that America is struggling on the economic front. The evidence can be witnessed at the local golf course.
- More On & Off the Course Headlines
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